Expanding the value of contracts by leveraging relationships on the Salesforce platform.

As the leading authority on all things contract related, The International Association for Contract & Commercial Management (IACCM) has a truer picture of the current state of contracts at any given time than anyone. As such, IACCM looks at the impact of contracts and the relationships they represent beyond just the legal department, and they are big proponents of using contracts as “living documents” to maximize the potential they hold to benefit all parties involved.

November was all about success; how to achieve it, undermine it, prepare for it, and customers who embody it, like Alliant Credit Union and Watermark Retirement Communities. Anytime you start out on a new project, one of the first questions asked is likely, “how do we measure success?”

CPE programs, training workshops, industry events like the SIG Summit, eWorld Procurement and ProcureCon, even podcasts and Ted Talks; what they all share in common is providing content to satisfy those who are constantly striving for self-improvement. Likewise, most of our resources focus on helping you translate that need for improvement to your Source-to-Pay, contract management, sourcing and other processes. This October DetermiNews has plenty to accompany you on your path to process efficiency.

Contracts, in one form or another, have probably been around as long as humans. There isn’t much written on the topic until Plato got around to it in 348 BC, and even he doesn’t go into much detail. Fast forward to today, and contracts are a fact of life. Business is built on contracts, and their importance can’t be overstated. So it is a curious thing that Determine still encounters so many companies using manual or spreadsheet-based contract management processes. It’s almost as if they’re treated as inconsequential afterthoughts, rather than invaluable assets. In this September DetermiNews, we explore a month of resources focused on contracts and how to best manage and leverage them.

How much time, money and hours are you wasting on contract management?

According to IACCM, the International Association for Contract & Commercial Management, organizations lose an average of 9.2% of revenue each year due to substandard contract management, lack of oversight and no visibility. Survey results in the 2018 Sourcing & CLM Insight Report from PayStream Advisors show that 58% of companies are still using manual contract management processes. These two stats are not a coincidence.

Procurement was center stage again this month (fitting, in terms of it being a summer of trade uncertainty). We covered the discipline from a number of different angles, from taxes to tactics. But in looking back, one thought from Andrew Bartolini, founder of Ardent Partners, stood out as particularly relevant to how procurement as a whole is developing: “While intelligence is critical, a precise measure of procurement intelligence is less important than the performance it generates. In point of fact, as a department (and the entire profession) matures, the definition of procurement intelligence becomes a moving target; and it becomes relative to nearly all stakeholders in the source-to-settle spectrum.”

Bring sustainable value to the bottom line.

Increasingly, procurement is being looked to for the added value it can bring to the organizational table. Expectations are on the rise as well, with big data and advanced analytics driving decision making to new levels by enabling teams to generate new insights and achieve unprecedented proactive capabilities. As covered in recent reports by both Ardent Partners and PayStream Advisors, demonstrating procurement’s value can include many components depending on the priorities of any particular company. But with increased reliance on cloud platform P2P solutions, showing procurement ROI is a great place to start.

Unlocking the strategic value in contracts.

A recent McKinsey study was chock-full of surprises in terms of procurement and CLM, including this little gem:

Across industries, total procurement operating expenses are typically less than 1 percent of total spending. By underinvesting in this way, companies are overlooking a significant source of value: suboptimal contract terms and conditions combined with a lack of effective contract management can cause an erosion of value in sourcing equal to 9 percent of annual revenues. For Fortune’s 2016 Global 500 companies, this 9 percent would have equaled $2.5 trillion in value.”

Our most read blogs

In the past, we’ve taken a close look at how the procurement maturity curve affects its focus. Two recent posts addressed issues concerning the evolving role of procurement savings, information and technology. In this two-part blog series, we’ll consider supply chain risk in the context of procurement’s maturity. We start by looking at supplier risk […]

The podcast series that’s all about minding your business in contract management and source to pay. Determine recently announced their new Contract Management App for Salesforce. And while Salesforce is a big name in the B2B world, procurement professionals might understandably question what this means for teams outside of sales.

Expanding the value of contracts by leveraging relationships on the Salesforce platform. As the leading authority on all things contract related, The International Association for Contract & Commercial Management (IACCM) has a truer picture of the current state of contracts at any given time than anyone. As such, IACCM looks at the impact of contracts […]

Integrating Determine contracts with Salesforce contacts to drive business opportunities. The Determine Contract Management App on the Salesforce Appexchange is yet another way to be more agile, proactive and responsive in the ever-competitive business world. The following screenshots show you how easy it is to request, manage and collaborate on contracts between our Salesforce app […]

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